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In English, there are many tendencies towards what I understand to be redundant. Why do people say expressions like "sit down", "fall down", "jump up": if you were to sit, obviously you would sit downwards, it's impossible to sit upwards, so wouldn't "sit down" be redundant? The same goes for "fall down", it's impossible to fall upwards just like it's impossible to jump downwards. Is it redundant in English? If not, why?

Werrucktlerner
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  • "it's impossible to sit upwards" - No it isn't. I know some short people who have to climb up onto tall bar stools. If you jump into a hole that would be jumping downwards. – nnnnnn Aug 31 '20 at 05:55
  • You can jump down (from a fence or pedestal), or forward, or backward, or jump out of a window. You can fall backward, forward, sideways, or over something. – Xanne Aug 31 '20 at 05:59
  • You can sit up, sit down, sit there, sit next to someone, sit on something. – Xanne Aug 31 '20 at 06:01
  • And you can jump across a ditch or a creek, jump away from an oncoming car or a barking dog, jump toward something or someone. The cow jumped over the moon (from a nursery rhyme). – Xanne Aug 31 '20 at 06:13
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    It's not clear to me what you mean by "How does redundancy work in English?" Grammatical redundancy is,for example, the plural 'are' and -s in the sentence There are two cats in the tree. Fall down could be considered an example of redundancy (also categorized in some cases as tautology or pleonasm). But the down is needed to distinguish the state and action of sitting: She sat on the chair / She sat down on the chair. – Shoe Aug 31 '20 at 06:44
  • We don't want to talk like robots – Michael Harvey Aug 31 '20 at 06:56
  • And don't forget the old Daylight Savings Time rule: Spring back and fall forward. – Hot Licks Aug 31 '20 at 12:06
  • Sometimes tautology is unacceptable (In my opinion, I think it's wrong). Sometimes tautology is used for a pragmatic purpose, eg emphasis (She went to see him personally; first and foremost). Sometimes tautology is used for style (pins and needles). Sometimes tautology is just a mumpsimus (a PIN number). // Sometimes, people see a tautology where there isn't one. 'Sit down' can add emphasis and can also disambiguate (Before his name was called, he sat on a chair near the surgery door: stative or punctive? 'sat down' disambiguates. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 31 '20 at 16:36
  • I would advise you to consult a good dictionary with examples for any particular verb/preposition combination that puzzles you to discover the different usages. It may be that the complete separation of verb and pronoun in English produces a greater flexibility or variation than in German, but the principle is similar. But any redundancy is usually restricted to the contemporary speech of the uneducated (e.g. “off of”). – David Aug 31 '20 at 16:51
  • "Come and sit up at the table" is something I was told a lot as a child. – marcellothearcane Sep 02 '20 at 08:08

1 Answers1

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Redundancy is a feature (not a bug) of all languages. Redundancy is built-in and necessary for communication. If every symbol had only one meaning and was used only once, communication would be impossible; repetition is the foundation of all successful communication.

Consider how much ambient noise there is in our environment, and how many distractions we are prey to. We miss stuff that others say, all the time. Luckily, we can guess pretty well what we missed most of the time, and don't usually notice that we're having to guess. That's because language is around 90% redundant, on all levels.

And that's the way it has to be; it's what language evolved into. In every language,

  1. the sounds are restricted, so only a few combinations are possible
  2. the words have to be assembled in only a few ways
  3. the combinations of words are limited to specific patterns
  4. only common metaphors and narratives structure the discourse

which means we can predict a lot of what comes next, because we're familiar with the structure, at all levels.

Indeed, we frequently predict what comes first, when it's missing because of Conversational Deletion:

  • (I have) Got to go now.
  • (It is/was) Too bad about old Charlie.
  • (I will) See you next Thursday.
  • (There is) No need to get upset about it.
  • (Have you) Ever been to the Grand Canyon?

This is possible because the construction markers are only necessary when there is a special need for them, as when learning a new construction. After it's learned, it can be shortened and ignored. But redundancy is always available, especially for learners.

John Lawler
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